Beyond Expectations of “Making America Great Again”: Framing Strategy in Digital Social Media
Author
Abstract
This article offers a new understanding of framing strategy in the digital context of social media. Framing is crucial not just for managers and executives but also for state officials worldwide who face difficulties in communicating policies to build consensus and mobilize action. Digital media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, and Line, not only present a new communication channel but also pose new challenges in the discursive expression and cultural innovation of strategic actors. Based on the case study of President Trump’s tweets, we identify four types of framing in the digital media context, namely stylization, argumentation, consensualization, and connection. They focus on pragmatic effects, logical rationality, contextual rationality, and communication media, respectively, which are related to discourse analysis in general. We further show that framing of tweets is likely to be moderated by various social problems related to politics, society, economics, national security, diplomacy, and media.
Key Words
framing, discourse, digital social media, tweets, President Trump
